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Eftychios Vassilakis, vice president of the Federation of Hellenic Enterprises (SEV), on Wednesday criticized government proposals to raise tax rates at the expense of productive and efficient private sector workers to raise 300 million euros per year, branding it a recipe for failure.

Addressing a special event held by the federation, Vassilakis made it clear that the economy today requires a modernization of taxation, a lifting of tax disincentives and the introduction of strong, horizontal investment incentives.

Instead of creating incentives for investment that support and are based on tax honesty and consistency, we are increasing the nominal rates to the benefit of tax evasion, particularly so in an environment of limited liquidity, the leading industrialist stated, before making his case in favor of tax system modernization.

He cited a survey by the Athens University of Economics and Business showing that the introduction of online pricing by enterprises would increase the annual benefit for companies by as much as 1.5 billion euros, along with reducing bogus invoices by 80 percent and bringing an additional 1 million euros into state coffers from value-added tax.

A new report is calling on Atlantic Canada's provincial governments to adopt the taxation policies of neighbouring New England states.

"Atlantic Canada has struggled for decades with low investment, which leads to high unemployment and net outflows of people," said Mark Milke, author of Tax Competitiveness: New England and Atlantic Canada Compared. "High tax rates don't help reverse that."

Released by the Halifax-based Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), the report recommends Atlantic Canadian provincial governments allow for further resource exploration and development, move to a simpler income tax code with emphasis on lowering business taxes and spending restraint.

"There is a practical reason to allow natural gas development -- extra royalties and extra business taxes that then can be used to reduce overall high business and personal tax rates in the region," said Milke. "It's hard to lower Atlantic Canada's taxes without a new revenue stream, unless one wants deep cuts to program spending."

Lower taxes and natural resource development will create a much better economic environment, he added.

"Atlantic Canada has been a high tax jurisdiction since at least the 1970s," said Milke. "Lower taxes and smart investment policy is why Alberta has thrived for decades despite occasional bumps like now."

According to the study, the lowest top marginal personal income tax rate in New England in 2016 is New Hampshire's, at 39.6 per cent, compared with a top marginal rate of 54 per cent in Nova Scotia.

"Entrepreneurs will not touch Atlantic Canada with top marginal rates in the high 40s and low 50s," said Milke.

The general corporate income tax rate in New England ranges from seven per cent to 8.93 per cent, almost half the standard corporate rate in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

"It is important to note that when comparing Atlantic Canada with New England that taxing powers between the federal governments and provincial, state and municipal governments in the two countries are vastly different and all tax bases should be considered," said Marla MacInnis, spokeswoman for the Department of Finance.

"The responsibilities for delivery of services are also very different, for example, universal health care."

MacInnis said it's within the mandate of Finance and Treasury Board Minister Randy Delorey to review options to implement changes to the province's tax structure to support economic growth.

ISLAMABAD: Special Adviser to Prime Minister for Revenue Haroon Akhtar has lauded the Overseas Investor Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) for presenting taxation proposals focusing foreign development investment (FDI) in the country.

In an over two hours interactive session with leading foreign investors in Pakistan, Haroon Akhter highlighted the key achievements of the government since 2013 and mentioned that the good policies of the government has resulted in improvement in the countrys overall security environment, reduction in power and gas load shedding, lowering of inflation, reduction in bank borrowing rates, reduced fiscal deficit, and robust performance of PSE index, besides improvement in international economic ratings of the country.

OICCI President Shahab Rizvi highlighted salient features of the OICCI taxation proposals and recommended that the tax policies need to facilitate rapid economic growth of about 7 % annually, and help attract foreign investment. Shahab Rizvi emphasised on the need to improve policy implementation, especially in taxation matters with the focus on predictability, consistency and transparency in government actions so as to attract new investment in the country.

Presenting the details of OICCI taxation proposals, Secretary General Abdul Aleem referred to some of the specific recommendation including the need to reduce Corporate Income Tax and Sales Tax rates and to bring them in line with regional practices. He also mentioned that lack of effective coordination between federal and provincial revenue and other regulatory authorities has negatively impacted foreign investors.

Commenting on the major points of the OICCI taxation proposals informed that the government was aggressively pursuing initiatives to broaden the tax base and warned the tax evaders of severe punishment. He also referred to the recent Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme (VTCS) and mentioned that it was part of the tax broadening process. Haroon informed the participants the government was working to increasing the level of FDI into the country.

OICCI President Shahab Rizvi thanked the special adviser for considering all the key points of the OICCI taxation proposals and his promise to review all the recommendations.

Aviation workers under the aegis of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) have petitioned the minister of state for aviation, Hadi Sirika, on what they described as imminent crisis in aviation over exorbitant and multiple taxation/fees, arbitrarily imposed on handling companies by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Equally worried by the situation